The Facts of Life and Other Stories
by JudasFm
Summary: Complete short story spinoffs from my other work. To begin with, Tails has a very important question to ask, and with Sonic temporarily gone, the only person he can turn to for answers is Knuckles. Some innuendo present. Please R&R!
1. The Facts of Life

**This is a very short interim fic which takes place somewhere between the last two chapters of _Secrets of the Emeralds_, before Tails leaves Angel Island and before Knuckles heals Sonic. It's been referred to in the sequel to _Secrets_ (_Caves of the Ancients_) and one reviewer commented that they'd like to read about it, so I thought I'd write it :P It's more of a light humourous fic than anything else. Enjoy!**

Knuckles had just finished lunch when Tails came to stand in front of him, regarding him solemnly.

"What?" the echidna said edgily. That was the thing about Tails; you never knew what he was going to come out with, and the more solemn and serious he looked, the worse it usually was.

"Knuckles, where did I come from?"

Knuckles frowned perplexedly.

"You tell me. I only met you a couple years ago, remember? Aren't you from one of the Hill Zones?"

Tails shook his head. "That's not what I mean. I mean where did I _come_ from? You know, at the very beginning? When I was a cub?"

"Oh!" Understanding didn't dawn on the echidna so much as explode, and Knuckles coughed. "Oh...right. Well. Um. Yes. Ah...has Sonic never, uh, never explained this to you?"

Another shake of the head.

"No, I've never asked Sonic."

_Then why are you asking ME! _Knuckles wanted to wail, but didn't. He got his answer a second later as Tails added, "Besides, I know you're not gonna fob me off."

Was there such a thing as being too honest and truthful for your own good? Knuckles rather thought that there might be.

Actually, come to think of it, what was the fox's life cycle?

"I...only really know about echidnas," he hedged, in the hopes that this would discourage Tails from further questioning. It didn't.

"That's okay. I mean, it's kinda the same all over, right?"

"Well...sorta." Knuckles rubbed the back of his neck. Jeez, where was Sonic when you needed him? Even bitter and crippled like he was now (although he had shown signs of recovery) the hedgehog would be much better suited to dealing with this topic, and if he wasn't then at least Knuckles could have gotten a good laugh out of it. "But...see, echidnas hatch out of eggs and then live on milk until it's time to go onto solids."

"Yeah, and me and Sonic were just born."

"Exactly. See, you do know," Knuckles said hopefully, and Tails promptly slam-dunked that hope into the bedrock by saying, "Well, yeah, I know that the female lays eggs or gives birth or whatever. I just don't know how the eggs and babies get inside her to begin with."

"You don't...oh. Oh. Oh boy. Uh." Embarrassment wasn't something that came very easily to Knuckles, but by the Master Emerald, he was learning, and learning fast at that!

Tails clambered up to sit on the rock next to the echidna.

"So how's it happen? Is it like growing plants?"

"Yeah!" Knuckles pounced on the analogy with a strong sense of relief. "Yeah, it is. See, uh, the female has an egg inside her which kinda acts like a seed, and the male...kind of...waters it with a special liquid and the first, uh, the first drop of the water—"

"—liquid—"

"—right, right, the first drop of the liquid to reach the seed, I mean the egg, well the liquid fertilises it and it grows into a baby...eesh..." The echidna dropped his head into his hands, fully aware of how badly he was screwing this up.

But damn, giving sex education to two-tailed foxes had _not_ been on the agenda for that day!

Tails' face scrunched up in thought for a few minutes, then he said, "Yeah, I sorta see how that works. So the guy waters this egg and the first drop of water to hit the egg turns it into a kid, right?"

"Right." Feeling he was on firmer ground now, Knuckles made the fatal mistake of relaxing. "And then when that kid gets big enough, the mother gives birth or lays the eggs or whatever. You know the rest, right?"

Tails considered.

"How long does it take? For the egg to develop and come out?"

"Uh. Depends on the species of the mother."

"Echidnas."

"Echidnas? Oh...about three months. Puggles are pretty much helpless for another five months though; they live in their mother's pouch until their spines grow."

"So lemme make sure I got this straight. The father waters the egg and the first drop of water to hit the egg turns it into a kid and then after a bit the mother has the kid?"

"Yeah. Exactly." _Please, please let that be the end of it_, Knuckles pleaded to anyone who might be listening as he took a gulp of water.

Tails was silent for a few minutes, then said, "Knux?"

"Ye-es?" the echidna said warily.

"The egg's inside the mother, right?"

"Ye-es..."

"So how does the father get the special water in there?"

Knuckles choked violently on his own, rather more ordinary water and Tails moved up to whack him on the back a couple of times.

"He...uh..." Knuckles coughed. "Well, uh, you know kissing?"

Tails looked revolted. "What, he spits down her throat?"

It says something for the echidna's discomfort that he seriously considered saying yes, if only to shut the fox up.

"Not quite," he said helplessly, cursing his innate honesty. "It's kinda...well, a little like that, but lower down." When Tails looked bemused, Knuckles gestured towards the groinal area.

Now Tails looked completely and utterly repulsed. "Eurgh! He _pees_ on her?"

"No, he...well, he has a..." Knuckles coughed again. "See...the female has a...a sort of..." His mind raced frantically for an analogy. "Well...it's a kind of...like a special slot and the male..."

Tails bit into a pella fruit while scrutinising the echidna thoughtfully.

"So...is it kinda like those shapes I used to make as a kid? You know, Insert Tab A Into Slot B, that kinda thing?"

"That kinda thing, yeah."

"And then what? He pumps the special water into her?"

"Well...that's one way of putting it, yeah."

"What's it like?" Tails asked curiously.

"How the hell should I know? I've never—" Knuckles broke off rather abruptly and cleared his throat a bit too loudly. "What does that matter?" he said instead.

"I'm just curious. Where do you get these pumps?"

The echidna stared at him. "Tails, you're not honestly thinking of—"

"No _way_! I don't want kids _ever_! But I'd just like to know in case I change my mind when I'm older."

Knuckles took a long, deep breath. "If it comes to it, Tails, you'll find one."

"But it'd be much easier if you could just show me—"

"No!" Damn it all to hell, Knuckles thought wearily, how did he get into these situations?

"Okay." Tails scrunched noisily at his fruit. "So the male pumps some special water into the female who then grows a baby from the first drop of water and the seed inside her which is really an egg. Right?"

"Pretty much." Knuckles didn't dare relax, not yet.

"So why're you so embarrassed 'bout telling me?"

"It..." Knuckles coughed. "It's not the sort of thing that some people like discussing in polite society."

"Yeah, but you don't have _any_ society, polite or otherwise," Tails said bluntly.

"You'll understand when you get older." It was a copout and Knuckles knew it, but he couldn't think of any other way to explain. Tails heaved a sigh.

"I wanna understand _now_, Knux! How'd you find out?"

"My mother explained it to me." In fact, _explained_ was too kind a word; when Knuckles had asked the same question aged about five and a half, Lara-Le's exact words had been, "Two partners screw each other and when they're done there's a baby inside the female. You know the rest, Knuckles. Now get your behind back to the shrine right now; it's your duty to guard the Master Emerald and I've done my shift for the day." It had been Mighty who had finally helped the echidna fill in the gaps some five years later.

"Your mother? So you can't've been older than six 'cause that's when she—"

"—died right next to me, Tails, yeah, thanks for reminding me," Knuckles said waspishly.

"Sorry. But _you_ understood it when you were six, and I'm eight so _I_ wanna understand it completely."

"I didn't understand it _completely_, kid, not until I was about ten."

"Ten." Tails fell silent, musing. "So does that mean you're gonna be a bit more explicit when _I'm_ ten?"

"Yes, probably." Knuckles would have said anything to get out of this conversation, although he made a mental note to keep well away from Tails on the kid's tenth birthday unless Sonic was back with them again.

"And you'll tell me where I can get one of those pumps?"

Knuckles closed his eyes with an inward groan. Sometimes, Master Emerald or no Master Emerald, sometimes it really was _not_ worth getting up in the morning...

**Okay, that's it. Just a bit of light fun, but if you read it, please review :D And a big thankyou to those who have reviewed so far:**

**SaffraEchidna: (blushes) Thanks; I'm glad you enjoyed it :D**

**TurboTails23: (happy smile) Thanks :D**

**PyroHedgehog4Ever: You did:P Great! (Well, not great as such, but...oh hell, you know what I mean ;))**

**Awdures: Yes, Tails does have a knack for that, doesn't he? ;)**

**Kj: Thanks :)**

**Ryopon: Thanks; yeah, I felt for Knuckles all the time I was writing it (weg)**

**Matt Lans: Oh yeah, Knuckles was red alright ;) Poor guy...**

**TC Chan: (blushes again) Thanks; I'm glad it was okay ;) And yes, I loved the 'pee' part as well :P**

**ShadowIsCool: Heh...okay, I won't ;) Thanks for reviewing, glad you liked it :D**

**The Kitsune Warrior: (smiles) Thanks :D**

**Rivic:D Thanks; glad you liked it!**

**XTailsX: Heh, thanks ;)**


	2. Bath Night

**A/N: Okay...some of you may notice I've changed the title. I'm turning this into a collection of not quite random short stories; mostly incidents that have been referred to in passing in some of my other fanfictions and which people have commented they'd like to see :P**

**This one was referred to in _Sins of the Mothers_, but takes place in _Secrets of the Emeralds_, in the Casino Zone and on the same night as Tails and Sonic had that argument about the journals...**

"NO!"

The word wasn't spoken so much as yelped, and yelped at the top of the speaker's voice at that.

In the luxury hotel room, Sonic sighed. "Tails..."

"No, no, no, no, _no_! I'm _not_ gonna do it an' you can't make me!"

"But Tails, it's Wednesday—"

"I don't care! An' after what you did earlier you got a real nerve asking me to do something like this!"

Sonic closed his eyes, memories of earlier events momentarily silencing him, then said, "Tails, what does your reading my journal have to do with you taking your weekly bath?"

"You owe me, Sonic! After writing all that mean stuff, why should I spend ages running a bath when my show is on in ten minutes? An' I'm not gonna miss my TV show, Sonic; it's cool and you can learn stuff from it so it's educational!"

Sonic fixed Tails with his best cool look. "_Attack of the Psychopathic Mutant Killer Fruit Machines_ is educational?"

Tails at least had the grace to look away. For about half a second.

"It _is_! If someone ever puts toxic waste in the sprinkler system an' a fire starts an' mutates all the fruit machines, we gotta know how to beat 'em!"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Uh huh. Right. I was just thinking only this morning that Mobians don't test their sprinkler systems for toxic waste enough." He sighed. "Tails, I've run the water for you. All you've gotta do is get in, wash and get out. And face it, you've seen all the episodes of that show anyway."

"Nuh uh! No way, Sonic! No way no way _no way no way _NO WAY _NO_—"

The door of the hotel room next to them crashed open a split second before Sonic and Tails' did, admitting a scowling Knuckles. Without saying a word, the echidna picked up Tails, holding him at arms' length, then strode into the bathroom.

"Knuckles! Knuckles, what're you doing?" Tails' voice abruptly rose in pitch and volume. "_Knucklehead, don't you DARE dump me in the—_"

A loud splash came from the bathroom and Tails yelped loudly.

"Shut up," Knuckles ordered curtly from inside.

"Sonic's gonna get real mad at you!"

"Why? Because I managed to get you in the bath after he's been trying to do the same thing for half an hour?"

Moving closer, Sonic heard Tails say, "Yeah, well, I'm not gonna _stay_ in the bath, am I? In fact, I'm done right now. I'll see you—hey, get off! Sonic! _Sonic_! Sonic, help! Knucklehead's torturing me!"

Sonic, who had hitherto been torn between staying to make sure the echidna wasn't too rough and just letting him get on with it, rolled his eyes. Okay. If that was how Tails wanted it, fine.

Pushing open the bathroom door, he saw that Knuckles was preventing Tails scrambling out by the simple method of pinning him against the wall with one hand.

"Sonic!" Tails wriggled. "Sonic, you gotta help me! He's trying to kill me! He dropped me in the water, Sonic an' he won't lemme out, you gotta _do_ something!"

Sonic folded his arms. "Right, Tails. What do you want me to do, spindash him?"

Tails shook his head. "Nuh uh! Jus' make him put his hands behind his back an' both of you close your eyes and count to a billion an'—OW! Knuckles, that was my _eye_!"

"Yeah? Well, it was _my_ finger," Knuckles retorted. "Sonic, did you want something?"

"Get me away from this maniac!" Tails shrieked, his voice becoming slightly garbled as Knuckles ducked him under the water.

A gleam crept into Sonic's eyes. "Yeah. I was gonna ask if either of you wanted me to pick up something from the tables. I thought I'd try my luck at pinball."

Tails surfaced again, glaring at Sonic. "You mean you're gonna _leave_ me?"

"Well...you seem happy enough in your bath, kiddo, and since Knux is making sure you stay in it, you might actually get clean. So yeah, I'm gonna leave you for a couple hours. I'm sure you won't drown."

"Not if he keeps his yap shut he won't," Knuckles said ominously.

"See? _See_? Knucklebrain's gonna kill me!" Tails scowled at the echidna. "Lemme guess, Sonic finally got me insured an' you're gonna split the payoff, right?"

Knuckles rolled his eyes and dunked the fox again, glancing over his shoulder at Sonic. "You still here?"

"Nope. I'll be back in a couple hours." Sonic grinned broadly. "Good luck to you, Knux. You'll need it."

"Sonic?" Knuckles said pleasantly.

"Yeah?"

"I saw Amy Rose heading for the tables not long ago. Good luck to _you_."

Sonic paled, then abruptly whirled and raced off so fast he blew the door shut behind him. Smirking slightly, Knuckles let a gasping Tails up for air again.

"You got water in my ear!" Tails accused.

"Then _flatten_ your ear and quit thrashing around so much," Knuckles answered. "I'm sick of hearing you and Sonic go through this pantomime every damn time we stop and so I'm telling you; you are not getting out of this water until I've got you clean. Do you understand me?"

Tails scowled at Knuckles. "The water's almost cold, Knucklehead!"

"That's your fault, kid, not mine. You could've been done half an hour ago if you'd cooperated, and watching your trash TV. Now hold still. I want to wash your head some more."

"If you think I'm gonna let you shove my head under—" Tails began, then broke off abruptly as Knuckles picked up a large soap dish and filled it with water. "You wouldn't _dare_!"

The echidna caught hold of Tails, not roughly but firmly enough to ensure he couldn't wriggle away, then dumped the contents of the soap dish over the fox's head, ignoring the outraged shriek.

"Quit yelping," Knuckles said sharply. "Anyone would think I was torturing you."

"You _are_! You—" Tails broke off and spluttered as a generous portion of soap and water found its way into his mouth. "Knuckles!" he said, somewhat indistinctly. "You did that on purpose!"

"I do everything on purpose, kid," Knuckles answered coolly. "And if you spit it on my fur, I'll hold your head under the water again, only this time I won't let you up until you pass out."

Tails, who had been about to do just that, hesitated before spraying his mouthful into the bath instead and saying, "You wouldn't really, would you?"

"You push me that little bit further and you'll find out," retorted Knuckles, who wouldn't but had no intention of letting Tails know.

The threat worked better than he'd hoped; the fox shut his mouth with a snap and didn't move or speak until Knuckles had finished scrubbing him clean.

"There." The echidna hoisted Tails out, dumped him unceremoniously on his backside and threw a towel over him. "Now dry yourself off and brush your fur out, or do I have to do that for you as well?"

"I don't have a furbrush, Knuckles," Tails said, in a quieter voice than usual. This much was true, but only because Tails had 'accidentally' dropped it out of the Tornado a few months ago. He'd been pleased with himself at the time, but now all he could feel was a strange sense of dread; suppose Knuckles took it upon himself to groom Tails with those spikes on his hands?

In all fairness, Knuckles had no intention of doing any such thing, but the thought of it was enough to subdue the fox.

"Use the complimentary one," Knuckles said flatly.

"There isn't one."

Knuckles blinked – there was a complimentary furbrush in _his_ room – then said, "Why not?"

There was a long, long silence, then Tails said nervously, "Maybe someone took it on a bingo slide an' dropped it through one of the holes."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Alright. Wait here and I'll get mine. You start drying yourself off."

"I don't like drying myself with towels, Knucklehead; it makes my fur puff out."

Knuckles fixed the stubborn fox with an icy stare. "Tails?"

Realising for the first time that he might have pushed the echidna too far, Tails squirmed. "Uh...yeah?"

Knuckles thrust the towel into Tails' arms. "Get on with it and quit whining! And if you're not at least half dry by the time I get back, I'll towel you myself."

The echidna supposed that Sonic might consider his methods unnecessarily harsh, but damn it all to hell, it wasn't as if the hedgehog had had any success with his softly-softly approach!

Knuckles pushed open the door to his bathroom – he'd flatly refused to share a hotel room with Sonic and Tails – and picked up the furbrush. It was good quality – no more than he'd expect from a five star hotel – but Knuckles himself never bothered with brushing; his fur was far too short to worry about.

He glanced at the clock and decided he'd give Tails another thirty seconds to dry himself before going back. Knuckles shook his head irritably. No echidna puggle would be permitted to behave as Tails had done.

Turning abruptly, he strode out and into Tails' room, where the little fox was standing in the bedroom looking very forlorn.

"Don't give me that big-eyed look, kid," Knuckles said unsympathetically. "Are you dry?"

Tails, who had cheated on the towelling by shaking himself vigorously all over, nodded and took the furbrush.

"Knuckles?" he said suddenly.

"One more argument out of you, kid, and I'll knock you tail over snout. I mean it."

"No, it's jus'..."

"Just what?" the echidna demanded tersely. Bathing a two-tailed fox had not been among his plans for that evening!

Tails looked up, still clutching the furbrush. "Well...Sonic's not here, else I'd ask him so...uh..." He held out the brush. "C'n you do my back? 'Cause it's not fair to get mad at me for not brushing everywhere when I can't reach behind me."

Knuckles opened his mouth to retort that he wasn't a damn hairdresser, then swallowed the retort. Tails was right; fair was fair.

"Alright." He took the furbrush with a bad grace. "Turn around."

The fox obeyed, although he kept one eye and ear on the echidna as the brushing started. Tails winced away several times, although Knuckles wasn't being deliberately rough.

"See, _this_ is why I never brush my fur 'less I have to," Tails mumbled.

"Yeah," Knuckles answered coolly, "and _that's_ why it's such a big deal when you do. If you did this every night, or even every other night, you wouldn't have these problems."

Tails flattened his ears. "I don't like baths, Knux. _Sonic_ never takes a bath."

That one was just too easy, Knuckles thought. Aloud he said, "You're not Sonic, kid."

"Yeah, but how come _his_ fur doesn't get all tangled an' matted?"

"Stop wriggling," Knuckles ordered. Tails stopped obligingly, but half turned his head to talk to the echidna.

"But how come, Knuckles? I wanna know."

The echidna sighed. "Sonic's fur doesn't get all tangled and matted because there's not enough of it. You, on the other hand, have fur that's six inches thick in places and a tendency to crawl and play in anything remotely muddy." Knuckles pulled harder than he'd intended on a stubborn tangle, causing Tails to yip in protest. "Sorry. As I was saying, you wanna play, kid, fine, but you gotta take the consequences. In this case, a bath and a good fur brushing." Temporarily giving up on the brush, he used one of his spikes to break through the knots, then resumed brushing.

"Don't like fur brushings," Tails mumbled.

"And I don't like eight year old kids who act like spoilt toddlers, Tails, so it doesn't look like either of us are going to be particularly happy tonight, does it?"

Tails yipped again, this time in indignation and twisted around to glare at Knuckles. "I am _not_ acting like a spoilt toddler!"

"You are when you act like you did back then. Turn around, Tails, and let me finish, or I'll hold you down."

Tails complied. He'd already learned that the echidna didn't make empty threats.

"Knux?" he said, after a few seconds had gone past.

"What now?"

"You like me really, right?"

"When you act your age, yeah, I guess I do. When you act like you did just now, no. In fact, when you do that, I usually want to give you a damn good slap and tell you to grow up."

Tails flicked an ear nervously. "So how come you didn't do that when you found me on that platform?"

Knuckles sighed. "There's a difference between being immature and being childish. Going off in a sulk was immature, but frankly, I didn't expect anything else from someone your age. Add that to the fact that I thought you had every right to be angry at Sonic for what he wrote in his journal...violence is the last resort."

"Yeah?" Curious now, Tails turned his head to look at the echidna. "So what's the first?"

"Threatening violence, of course." Knuckles stopped brushing. "Alright, your back's done." Thrusting the brush at Tails, he added, "Now get on and do the rest of it, and if it's not finished by the time Sonic gets back, I'll slam dunk you into the toilet and flush it."

Tails yipped in alarm and started tugging the brush through his tangled belly fur. Satisfied, Knuckles turned to go.

"Knuckles?"

"What?"

"C'n I watch TV while I do it?"

Knuckles snorted. "What d'you need my permission for? I don't care if you do backflips around the room, so long as you're finished when Sonic returns."

Turning back, he strode out of the room, slamming the door behind him. For a minute, Tails considered defying Knuckles, then he thought of the echidna's likely reaction and lost his nerve. Picking up the remote, he turned on the TV – he'd missed _Attack of the Psychopathic Mutant Killer Fruit Machines_, but the show that followed wasn't too bad – and started to tug the brush through his belly fur.

By the time Sonic (who had played seven rounds of aerial bingo before managing to get a perfect score) returned, Tails had finished and was lying flat out on the mattress.

Glancing up at the hedgehog, Tails smiled sheepishly.

"Hi Sonic."

Sonic stared at the incredibly clean and well-groomed (and somewhat subdued) Tails who was lying on his bed watching cartoons, then shook his head with a grin.

_Man, I shoulda called in Knux ages ago_...

**Well, another random 'expansion fic' :P Hope you liked it and if you read, please leave a review! Thanks :D**


	3. Of Chilli Dogs and Ghost Stories

**Okay, I'm in a serious Sonic mood after listening to _Hikaru Michi_ several times (ending theme for the Japanese Sonic X for anyone who doesn't know, and one of the best songs I've ever heard) For some reason seeing it with the Japanese end credits always makes me want to cry.**

**Ahem. Anyway, yes. This was an idea submitted to me for Bait's First Chilli Dog, and it sort of spiralled on from there. It takes place towards the beginning of _Caves of the Ancients, _the first night after Bait joined the group. Enjoy!**

"Knuckles," Sonic said, in tones of leaden patience coupled with resignation, "_give_ me that sausage!"

The echidna held it out of reach. "How about a please, Sonic?"

"I've said please! I'm starving, Knux; have a heart!" Sonic darted forward, grabbed the sausage in question out of Knuckles' hand and backed off, clutching it tightly. "Okay, who's got the buns?"

"Him." Knuckles jerked his head towards the third member of their party, who had been silent ever since they set up camp. Bait the jackal had joined in the early afternoon, and neither of them were quite sure what to make of him yet.

"Yeah, 'sright!" Bait opened his pack. "I got buns, I got chilli, I even got a pan, mister, you wannit?"

Sonic glanced at the jackal, then shifted the glance into a glare and turned it on Knuckles. "Has Knucklehead been making you do all the work?"

"I haven't made him do anything, Sonic," the echidna answered calmly, "the kid was only too eager to volunteer."

Sonic folded his arms. "Okay, first of all, _the kid_'s got a name! Secondly, I didn't bring him with us to be your own personal slave!"

Knuckles' eyes narrowed slightly. "Well, I'd guess the kid—" he stressed the words very slightly— "would know all about slaves."

Bait cringed and looked away.

"Leave him alone, Knuckles." Sonic gestured towards Bait's bag. "Let me see that."

The jackal pushed it over to him. Lifting it in one hand, Sonic whistled at the weight.

"Damn, what've you got in there? Rocks?"

"Nuh uh, jus' summa them pots an' junk."

Sonic replaced the pack on the ground and opened it. The 'junk' turned out to be a packet of frozen sausages, three bottles of chilli, a six pack of bottled water and a small cast-iron cooking tin.

"Knuckles, give me your pack."

The echidna snorted. "Why? So you can dump Bait's into it?"

"Exactly, now hand it over."

Bait flattened his ears. "'Sokay mister, I dunt mind helpin', honest."

"Isn't it tough, carrying all that weight?" Sonic wanted to know.

"Well, yeah, but I dunt mind."

"I do. You keep on like that, kiddo, and you're gonna hurt yourself."

Bait frowned, the frown of a student trying desperately to grasp the lesson. "Yeah, so?"

There was a silence. Even Knuckles was looking shocked.

"So...don't you think it would be a good idea not to do that?" Sonic said at last.

"Do I got a choice?"

"Sure you got a choice." Sonic shot Knuckles a look. "And if that echidna tries telling you otherwise—"

"Good," Bait cut across, "'cause I choose to do it so's you don't gotta worry."

"And _I_ choose not to let you." Sonic placed the tin and the water in Knuckles' pack, then handed Bait's back to its owner. "How's that?"

The jackal hefted it experimentally, then nodded. "'Sokay. But I coulda taken the resta that stuff, mister, honest."

"I'm not gonna let you hurt yourself, Bait. You'll take some of it, because that's fair, but the rest can be split up between me and Knux." Sonic poured half a bottle of chilli into a pot and picked up a likely looking stick to stir it with, tossing some more sausages into the tin with his free hand.

Bait licked his lips, eyeing the sausages longingly. "Mister, c'n I have one a them?"

"Sure you can." Sonic scrutinised Bait thoughtfully, stirring the already almost bubbling chilli. "You're too skinny, kiddo. We need to feed you up."

Bait edged away, looking wary. "Why? You plannin' to eat me?"

The hedgehog laughed. "You're kidding!"

"Now, Sonic," Knuckles interjected, "if we get low on food, that's not a bad idea."

"Get blunted, Knucklehead!" Sonic retorted, no longer smiling. "No, Bait, we are _not_ fattening you up just to eat you."

Bait glanced down at the sausage. "You're eatin' that pig."

"That pig was feral, Bait, not..." Sonic broke off, shaking his head. "Man, I can't believe we're even debating this! Trust me, we are not going to eat you. Right Knuckles?"

The echidna relented slightly. "Right."

"See?" Sonic dunked the sausage into the now bubbling pot of chilli, slapped it into a bun and handed it to the jackal. "Here. Get that down you."

Bait hesitated, sniffing it warily. "What's this orange stuff, mister?"

"Can't make a chilli dog without chilli sauce, kiddo." Seeing Bait's perplexity, Sonic added, "Don't tell me you've never had a chilli dog!"

Bait flattened his ears. "Okay, if you say so, mister."

"And don't call me mister."

"Okay mister." Catching Sonic's mock glare, Bait ducked his head hurriedly and took a large bite.

The chilli sauce hit the back of his throat and he choked violently, eyes watering.

"You okay?" Sonic asked.

"Uh...yeah! Yeah, this is great! Wow!" When Sonic's back was turned, Bait looked around frantically and Knuckles surreptitiously dug out a small clod of earth. Spitting his mouthful into the hole and placing the chilli dog on top, the jackal covered it up and gave Knuckles a quick, grateful glance.

"It's an acquired taste," the echidna told him. "Me, I never bothered to make the effort."

"You don't know what you're missing," Sonic said, biting into his own chilli dog and half closing his eyes, humming with pleasure. "Oh man, that's good! Food of the true epicures." Glancing at the jackal, he added, "Hey Bait, you finished that one pretty quick. You want another?"

"No!" Bait said, then flushed. "I mean, uh, no. I'm good."

"Sure?"

"Yeah! But...uh...mebbe jus' the sausage...?" The jackal let the sentence trail off hopefully, looking at the sausage and licking his lips.

Sonic grinned. "Help yourself." Getting to his feet, he added, "I'll see you guys in a few. I need a little private time."

Knuckles stood so fast he spilled his food into the fire. "Good. I'm going with you."

Sonic put a hand on the echidna's chest and pushed him back. "Thanks, but I think I can handle this one by myself, Knux."

"That's not what I meant. We need to talk."

"Can't it wait until I get back?"

"I mean we need to talk _alone_. Privately." Knuckles shot a look at Bait, who hunched his shoulders and stared into the fire, pretending not to hear.

Sonic folded his arms. "Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of Bait. _I_ trust him, even if you don't."

Knuckles rolled his eyes, grabbed Sonic and slung him over one shoulder, then strode into the forest with him. As soon as he judged they were out of earshot, he put the hedgehog down and said, "Let's talk."

"You can wait until I'm done!" Sonic hunted around until he found a likely looking bush, then ducked behind it.

Knuckles turned his back, arms folded, and waited obligingly. Presently Sonic emerged and came to stand in front of him, glaring.

"Alright. What's the problem with Bait now? I'll tell you this much before you answer, Knucklehead; that kid's alright by me if he likes chilli dogs."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Sonic, that kid would say he liked fried mouse turds if you gave them to him. From what I can see, he's no will or thought of his own beyond what _you_ want or think."

"Hey, don't blame me." Sonic held up both hands, palms outward. "_You're_ the one who said...what was it now?" He deepened his voice to a ridiculous pitch. "He's _your_ responsibility, Sonic. You feed him, water him, occupy him." Returning to normal (and telling himself that it had _nothing_ to do with the echidna's glare) Sonic continued. "Is it any wonder he listens to me more than you?"

"He's leading you a dance," the echidna warned.

Sonic snorted. "He's a kid!"

"He's ten years old. You were only a year older when you beat Robotnik for the first time."

"Yeah, and I doubt I'd have even made it past the Green Hill Zone if someone had loaded me down with all that crap!" Now the hedgehog was genuinely angry. "What the hell possessed you, Knuckles? You're not usually this big a jerk, certainly not to a scrawny ten year old!"

"After what he did to Tails—"

"Oh, get _off_ that subject already!" Sonic said sharply. "Yeah, what happened to Tails shouldn't have happened to anyone! And yeah, I'll agree that Bait played his part in it! So Tails is most likely being tormented even as we speak, probably being forced to do work his body isn't physically capable of yet, fine."

"It damn well isn't!"

Sonic jammed hands on hips. "Will you shut up for one minute and listen to me! We can't save Tails yet, since we don't have a clue where he is, and Bait's the only person who can lead us to him. So until we get there, some bastards are gonna be using Tails as a slave and general punching bag, and apparently your only way of coping and dealing with that is to grab hold of that poor jackal cub and do the same to him!"

Knuckles snorted. "You heard him, Sonic. He said he didn't mind."

Sonic slapped him.

It was clearly meant as nothing more than a silencer and it worked, mainly because Knuckles was completely and utterly shocked. Sonic never, ever resorted to physical violence unless there was no other option.

"Right." Sonic massaged some life back into his hand – Knuckles' jaw was harder than it looked – and stared hard at the echidna. "Let's get one or two things straight now. I don't like what Bait did to Tails any more than you do, but point one, I think he really wants to make up for it. Point two, we're not going to find Tails without him. Even if he is leading us to that place to betray us, at least we'll be with Tails and we can get him and ourselves out. Point three, I don't want you taking advantage of that kid just to make your life easier."

Knuckles averted his gaze. "I never thought he'd do it, Sonic. I swear by the Master Emerald I didn't, and I swear I was going to even up the load. You just went off in such a rush I never got time."

"Don't you _dare_ blame this on me, echidna. We stopped for lunch, we stopped for a few rests; you could have done it then."

Someone coughed behind them and the pair whirled to see Bait standing there, looking very much as though he was walking to his own execution.

"Mister, honest, dunt fight 'cause a me. I dint mean to mention 'bout the pack an' 'sokay, I c'n manage it. I'm tough." In reality, Bait's back and shoulders were throbbing so painfully he was wondering how he was going to sleep that night, but he wasn't about to give either Sonic or Knuckles any excuse to get rid of him.

"It's not about toughness, kiddo." Bait's appearance had cooled Sonic's temper right down until it was barely simmering. "It's about fairness. Knux here could carry all three of our packs all day at a run and not feel the strain, but it's not fair of me to ask him to do that, any more than it's fair of him to ask you to carry all that."

Bait flattened his ears. "But I _wanna_ carry it, mister. Else how'm I gonna earn my keep?"

"Earn your..." Temper flaring again, Sonic whirled on Knuckles. "If you've—"

"I haven't said a damn word!"

"He ain't, mister," Bait put in earnestly. "Honest."

Both the jackal and the echidna convinced Sonic; Bait's expression was too genuine to argue against and although Knuckles had his faults, Sonic had never known him tell a lie.

"Right...so what makes you think you gotta earn your keep?"

Bait frowned perplexedly. "Well, I gotta, right? Else you're jus' gonna say you can't afford to keep me an' I'm gonna hafta go my own way."

Sonic was momentarily speechless. He couldn't chalk this one up to Knuckles; the echidna made no bones about his lack of trust in Bait, but he wouldn't go out of his way to deliberately frighten or intimidate the jackal.

Much.

Now that he thought about it, the echidna probably hadn't stopped to think about the whole pack incident either. After all, Knuckles never claimed he could do anything he couldn't, so in the echidna's lexicon, it probably hadn't been unreasonable for him to assume that everyone else was the same.

"You don't have to earn your keep with us, Bait."

The jackal looked unconvinced. "Yeah, right, but I still gotta. What happens if I piss you off? Mebbe you wunt get ridda me if I'm useful to you. I know your buddy dunt like me an' he'd be on'y too happy to lemme go my own way—"

"Got that right," Knuckles said, then winced as Sonic kicked him hard on the ankle.

"—an' so I _gotta_ do somethin' to make you wanna keep me with you."

Sonic shook his head. "No you don't."

"Yeah, but—"

"No, kiddo; listen. You don't have to do anything to stop me leaving you, because that's not gonna happen. Not now, not ever. You're the only one who can lead us to Tails."

"Yeah, but I still gotta." There was a look in Bait's eyes which said he wouldn't believe Sonic no matter how many times the hedgehog tried to reassure him.

Sonic gave in. "Okay, if you say so." He glanced at his watch. "Anyone feel like turning in?"

There was a short pause, then Knuckles said, "If I say _no_, what are you going to do?"

"Nothing!" Sonic held up both hands. "Jeez, paranoid much? But still, it's only seven thirty, and now there's three of us and there are some camping traditions that have to be observed. It's like a law or something."

Bait looked a little apprehensive, but Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"Let me guess, Sonic; you want to tell ghost stories."

"I thought you'd never ask! C'mon!" Sonic grabbed Knuckles in one hand, Bait in the other and towed them both towards the campfire, plonking himself down on one side. "Who wants to start? Knuckles?"

The echidna fixed him with a cold look. "I don't tell stories, Sonic."

"Okay then, I'll start." Sonic leaned forward so the dying campfire illuminated his features from underneath. "Have either of you heard the story of Queen Leena?"

Bait shook his head and, after a nudge from Sonic, Knuckles did the same.

"They say—"

"Who are _they_?" Knuckles demanded.

"Just _they_, okay Knucklehead? Do you wanna hear this or not?"

"Not."

"Good, then button your bunhole." Sonic coughed and dropped his voice to a low, intense tone. "They say that back in the dark ages of Mobian history, Queen Leena ruled the whole of the Southern Archipelago."

Bait shifted. "Archie who?"

"Archipelago, kiddo; it means a group of small islands." Sonic continued. "They say that back in the dark ages of Mobian history—"

"D'you have to go through that every time?" Knuckles demanded irritably.

"—_yes_! If you don't like it, quit interrupting me!" Sonic rummaged in his pack for a few minutes before extracting a marshmallow and popping it into his mouth. "They say that back in the dark ages of Mobian history, Queen Leena ruled the whole of the Southern Archipelago. When the Mobian royalty system and aristocracy was overthrown, Queen Leena fled into exile. She gave her three children to three separate families, planning to reunite with them when they were old enough to keep pace with her. Unfortunately, by the time she could safely return to the families, the children had grown up and left. They say that Queen Leena was so enraged by this that she slit the throats of the youngest family members and drowned the rest of the family in their blood before heading out to continue her search. Her travels took her to a small log cabin on the outskirts of a wood. The people inside begged her to remain with them and not to enter the forest after nightfall, but Queen Leena refused to listen and went boldly in."

"And?" Knuckles prompted, after about two minutes had passed.

Sonic glared at him. "Do you mind! That was me pausing dramatically!"

"You forgetting what comes next, more like," the echidna muttered, not quite under his breath.

Next to him, Bait shifted uncomfortably. He had a nasty feeling that Sonic's story was about to reach a climax, and he wasn't looking forward to it. Scary stories had never been something he enjoyed.

"Well, anyway," Sonic went on, proving Bait right, "for a few hours everything was silent. Then things...started. The people in the hut heard ragged breathing coming from around them. Mist started to form, surrounding the building until nobody could see out. Then they heard the footsteps, like someone was running for their life, coming from the woods, followed by a splash and someone screaming for help from inside the forest. As soon as the screams died, the mist vanished—" Sonic snapped his fingers— "like that."

Bait swallowed. "So...so what happened to the queen?"

"Nobody really knows," Sonic said mysteriously. "She was found floating face down in the middle of a lake."

Knuckles snorted. "Right. So she's floating face down in the middle of a lake and nobody considers the possibility that she might just have _drowned_?"

"That's the strange thing, Knuckles," Sonic answered, "because the path through the forest was wide enough to stick to easily, and there were no other footprints besides Queen Leena's. Not only that, but she wasn't hurt in any way, and the outskirts of the lake were shallow enough for her to notice if she stepped into it. So how exactly did she drown, and how did she end up in the middle of the lake when there was no tide or anything to pull her out there?"

"Someone probably dragged her."

"No footprints, remember? And what about the mist?" Sonic shook his head. "Say what you like; they say that the...the _things_ that lived in those woods called up the mist to prevent anyone coming to help her." The hedgehog lowered his voice even further. "And that's not all. They say that the ghost of Queen Leena haunts the lake, that lake and all others, still searching for her children. They _also_ say that if you bring a light to the edge of a lake or swamp at night and shout _Queen Leena, I have your children_ or just _Queen Leena _three times, the spirit of the queen will appear in the water, just before she rises and kills whoever dared to try and trick her...and if you're under twelve years old, she'll drag you under the water to drown and keep her company forever."

"Just how many people bother to do that?" Knuckles said dismissively.

"You'd be surprised," Sonic told him. "It's pretty popular on camping trips, and there have been plenty of people who have done it and who look completely shaken and refuse to say what happened."

The echidna snorted again, then reached down and picked up a cold sausage, biting into it with a soft crunch. "Right. You know, my mother always taught me that surfacers were retarded, insane jerks—"

"And now you've heard my story you're saying you've changed your mind and we're intelligent, smart and incredibly creative?" Sonic said expectantly.

"No, I'm saying that I think she gave you all the benefit of the doubt," Knuckles answered.

Sonic punched him playfully on the arm. "Very funny!"

Bait shifted his weight. "Have you ever done that thing, mister?"

"What, tried to summon Queen Leena? Nah." Sonic dropped his voice to a storytelling pitch again. "Though I knew one group who did. Some kids camped out by the Labyrinth Zone and did the shouting thing."

"Yeah?" Half interested in spite of himself, Knuckles glanced at the hedgehog. "So what happened to them?"

"They came back, and all of them looked terrified out of their wits. One went feral and got dragged off to a reserve, one had hideous slashes on her arms, like someone had clawed at them, and none of them would ever talk about what had happened. But they did say one thing; immediately after calling the queen for the third time, an unnatural mist descended upon them."

There was a long silence, then Knuckles said reluctantly, "Sounds like they just ran into one of the _yu_-_ngayimin _to me."

Sonic pricked up his ears. "Young what? You got a scary story to add? C'mon Knux; don't hold back on us; spill! Then it's Bait's turn."

Bait flattened his ears. "Nuh uh. I don't do scary stories, mister."

"Okay, I'll take your turn then. I got a really good one about this crazy leopard who got her face sliced up—"

"—and now goes around with her scarred features demanding to know if she's beautiful and butchering anyone who says _no _or even just runs away screaming?" Knuckles cut across.

Sonic looked disappointed. "Ah crap, you've heard it!"

"No, but I know how surface stories pan out."

"Okay, but now you _gotta_ tell yours!"

The echidna folded his arms. "I said I don't tell stories, Sonic. Not to you, not to the kid, not to Tails, not to _anyone_."

Sonic poked the fire with a handy stick; there was a wintry bite in the air. "Yeah, but you gotta know some."

"I didn't say I didn't _know_ any; I said I wasn't going to tell you them."

"What?" Sonic put on his best kicked puppy expression. "Why not? If you can't tell your bestest hedgehog buddy your scary stories, who _can_ you tell?"

"If I told you, you'd take the piss out of me for the rest of our natural lives...which in your case probably wouldn't be all that long," Knuckles added under his breath.

"You got a pinecone wedged under your tail, Knux."

"Sonic—"

"That wasn't a question," Sonic said lightly, then rolled his eyes. "Fine. Keep your little tales to yourself then, if it makes you feel superior to all us non-echidnas." He winked at Bait, who looked taken aback at his familiarity, then stretched. "Okay. So if we're outta ghost stories—"

"How in the name of all the Emeralds can you be so damn flippant when Tails is—"

"Enslaved, Knucklehead, yeah, I know," Sonic said, his tone of voice now verging on thorough boredom. "How many times? Panicking and wearing myself out isn't going to get me to him any faster. It's like you said to me once; if you can't change a thing, why worry about it?"

"Because _some _of us happen to have a range of emotions – not to mention a sense of responsibility – larger than a grape pip, that's why!"

"Whatever you say, pinecone guy," Sonic said, now grinning broadly as the echidna turned his back on him and lay down. "Guess that means I got the first watch, huh?"

Knuckles merely grunted in response and Sonic laughed. Pushing that guy's buttons was just too easy.

"You too, kiddo," he said to Bait, who was wearing the somewhat glazed expression of someone who's just been catapulted into an alien culture and doesn't have a clue how to act. "Lie down and get some rest."

There was something to be said for the kid's discipline, Sonic thought lightly; the jackal didn't protest or attempt to argue but instead obeyed him instantly.

A slight frown creased his forehead. Something about that unquestioning compliance bothered him, although he couldn't put his finger on what.

_Maybe I'm just too used to Tails_, he thought wryly. The fox usually went along with Sonic's wishes, but bathtime and bedtime (especially bathtime) were both considered fair game, and Tails never went into either without a fight.

_Then again, guess I'm something of a soft touch_, Sonic added mentally, grinning to himself in the darkness as he remembered. He'd never given into Tails, even when he'd first met the little fox and decided to take him along, but it hadn't always been an easy victory either.

_Bet Knuckles never had discipline problems with Tails_, Sonic thought, glancing at the slumbering echidna. His grin broadened as he remembered that time in Casino Night Zone when Tails had refused to take a bath; while Sonic had been attempting to reason with him, Knuckles had just stalked in, picked up the fox and slam-dunked him into the full tub. The memory of Tails' astonished face was enough to make Sonic snicker, even now.

Something rustled next to them and the hedgehog stiffened, alert now, all levity gone. There was a pause, then a young doe stepped out into the clearing, saw Sonic and froze.

Sonic didn't move, barely even breathed. This kind of thing was what made these night time watches worthwhile; Mobian feral deer were nocturnal and incredibly shy. Sonic wasn't sure what had brought this one out – he'd thought the campfire would be enough to keep it away – but he still enjoyed the sight.

Apparently deciding not to risk the possibility that he was hostile, the deer abruptly whirled and bounded off and Sonic shook his head, grinning as he heard the hoarse kind of coughing bleat that was a deer's warning sound.

He glanced down at his watch. Another five and a half hours before he could wake Knuckles to take over.

Keeping a watch wasn't usually necessary on Mobius, at least, not in the normal course of events. By and large, if you went to sleep out in the wilds, people were happy to leave you to it, but with the threat of Robotnik (not to mention the nothing-void, and just what was that anyway? Sonic wondered) lurking in the backs of people's minds, a few people did work out a kind of sentry duty.

Sonic glanced over at Knuckles, who was just beginning to snore, and then at Bait. The jackal had been adamant that he wanted to take part of the watch and Sonic had been just as adamant about refusing to let him.

Not that it had made much difference, Sonic realised, catching sight of the dying firelight reflecting in Bait's open eyes.

"Can't sleep?" he said quietly.

Bait sat up and shivered. "Nuh uh. I keep seein' that queen what drowned an' when I did sleep I dreamt she were drownin' me too, jus' like you said."

Sonic snorted. "Kiddo, it was just a story. There's no such person as Queen Leena."

Bait fixed him with a liquid brown gaze. "Then why don'tcha go do what you said in that story to that pond over there, mister? Why don'tcha go sit on the edge and shout...shout what you said to shout?"

A gleam crept into Sonic's eyes. "If you say so, kiddo." Lifting a branch from the fire, he strode over until he was almost on the edge of the lake (his body wouldn't take him any closer) and shouted, "Queen Leena! Queen Leena! Queen—"

Whether the chant would have worked remained a mystery, since Knuckles picked that moment to jerk awake, glance around and then glower at the hedgehog.

"Dammit Sonic; I was _asleep_! What the hell's going on?"

"Bait and I are summoning an ancient, evil, vengeful and generally not nice spirit which is going to erupt from that lake and kill us all in a horribly painful way," Sonic explained, as though spirit-summoning was a regular pastime on Mobius.

"Yeah, well, summon it _quietly_," Knuckles ordered. "I'm trying to get some shuteye here!"

"Party pooper." Glancing around, Sonic caught sight of Bait huddled into his sleeping bag, eyes huge and ears flat against his head, and frowned slightly. "Hey, you okay?"

Bait swallowed and nodded.

"You sure?"

Another nod. "Mister...you wasn't really gonna do that thing, right?"

Looking at the jackal's expression, the thought occurred to Sonic for the first time that he might have gone too far.

"It wouldn't have worked, Bait. I told you, it's just a game."

"Yeah, but what 'bout them friendsa yours? The ones who did it an' then...somethin' happened an' they wunt say what?"

Sonic laughed, not unpleasantly. "Kiddo, I'd stake my last Mobium that they were just making it up to be tough."

"But what 'bout the one that went feral? An' the one with all them slashes on her arms?"

To Bait's astonishment, Sonic looked embarrassed.

"Yeah...well...he never actually went feral. He said he did, and pretended he did to frighten everyone else, but it was just a lie."

"Did he frighten _you_, mister?" Bait dared to ask.

"Nah, course not," answered Sonic, who had spent most of the time up the nearest tree whenever that particular kid had come by. In an effort to take Bait's mind off such things (and avoid the jackal finding out the truth) hepicked up a cold sausage from the skillet and started in on it, then offered another to Bait, who snatched it eagerly and bolted it almost without chewing.

"Guess you were pretty hungry, huh?"

Bait shook his head. "Uh uh, but I gotta eat 'cause you might not wanna gimme food later."

"Eat it while it's there because it might not be tomorrow, huh?" Sonic said lightly. He shook his head. "Bait, all the time you're with us, you'll eat with us. Okay?"

The jackal looked away, poking at the fallen leaves with a stick. "Sure, you say that now. Wait 'til you're real hungry."

"I've been real hungry, as you put it, before, and I still shared my food."

"_You_?" The derision in Bait's tone was matched only by his disbelief. "You never bin hungry, mister, not _never_."

Sonic squeezed his eyes shut, remembering. Robotnik's fortress...he'd been starved there. Starved until he was so weak he couldn't have escaped even if Robotnik hadn't crippled him. Most of the time the food he got was so rancid that the hedgehog couldn't even keep it down.

"No, kiddo. Trust me; I know what it's like to be hungry. _Really_ hungry, not just looking forward to dinner." Sonic no longer saw Bait; instead he was looking at the nightmare world inside his own head. "You go through hunger, then your stomach goes numb, then the hunger comes back ten times worse, only this time you feel sick as well, like you're gonna throw up anything you eat. Then you just lose your energy. You're not tired, but you can't physically do anything either."

An owl hooted, breaking the spell, and Sonic glanced back to where Bait was staring at him, wide-eyed.

"You really _do_ know, mister. I thought you was jus' talkin'. How'd you know?"

Sonic shivered. "Never mind that, Bait. How do _you_ know?" The thought occurred to Sonic for the first time that he knew nothing about the jackal, about his family situation. "You got family, right?"

Bait flattened his ears. "Well...yeah, but they dunt _feed _me, mister. I on'y get what I get myself an' that's on'y between jobs."

"Jobs?" Sonic's voice was so casual, almost disinterested, that Bait found himself saying more than he'd meant to.

"Yeah, 'cause you gotta earn food, right mister? If I screw up a job, they jus' make sure I can't get holda no food." Bait ducked his head. "It got real bad one time, 'cause I screwed up two jobs an' I went for three days without food an' next door had this real big roast dinner an' I could _smell_ it for hours an' see 'em eatin' it. It were roast beef too." Bait licked his lips in rememberance. "I'da done anythin' for jus' one mouthful."

Sonic grinned. "Yeah. I gotta admit I hit the restaurants now and then for a roast meal. I kinda like the potatoes best though." He drifted off into a wistful daydream. "Especially the way they do them in Sky High Zone. You know; you get that crispness outside and you bite into them and they're all white and fluffy..."

"_Yeah_..." Bait licked his lips again. "Or stew."

"Mmm. Meat pies..."

"Baked apples..."

Sonic groaned. "Oh man, quit it! You're making me hungry again!" He gave Bait a playful shove on the shoulder and the jackal flinched and shrank away from him, ears flat.

Sonic laughed. "Hey, c'mon, what's up? I didn't shove you that hard, kiddo."

Bait glanced away, curled up into as small a ball as possible. "I jus' got a...a bruise there, 'sall."

"Yeah?" Sonic succumbed to temptation, picking up the pot of chilli and a spoon and starting to eat. "How'd you get that?"

"Fell down."

Sonic licked his spoon, never taking his eyes off the jackal. "Bait?"

"Yeah mister?"

"Don't call me that. Bait, why did you really want to come with us?"

The jackal's ears flattened. "I tole you, mister; so's I c'n help you find your buddy."

"That's not the real reason, and I don't think so. Or if it is, why would you want to help us?"

Bait curled up, if it was possible, even smaller. "I ain't gonna screw you over, mister. Honest."

"I believe you, kiddo, but I still want to know why you're willing to leave your home and family behind just to help us."

The jackal squirmed. "I seen what they do to people down in them tunnels. I never liked it but you're the on'y people who've come lookin' for summun who went down there. An'..." He ducked his head. "An' I...I wanted to meet new people, see new places, that kinda stuff. I dint wanna be in a gang all my life 'cause if I were my life weren't gonna be that long. I seen how gang guys die, mister, all the time, an' I dint want it to happen to me."

Sonic raised an eye ridge. "Does that mean you're not going back to Emerald Hill Zone?"

Bait squirmed some more. "I dunt wanna, mister, not never."

The hedgehog frowned slightly. "What about your family? They'd miss you."

Bait snorted. "Not 'til he wants another job doin', an' that ain't gonna be for a while. You scared that gang real good, mister. _Nobody_ talks like that to Raker, not _never_." He paused. "That's another reason I wanted to lay low; Raker's gonna be in a bad mood for the resta the _week_, I shunt wonder."

Sonic's frown deepened, the tone of the jackal's voice giving him an insight. "Bait? Does this Raker ever hurt you?"

Bait glanced away. "Nah, why would he? I jus' keep fallin', 'sall."

The hedgehog shook his head. "You know something, kiddo? You remind me a little of an iceberg."

The jackal shot him a look that was half perplexed, half slightly hurt. "What, cold an' thick?"

Sonic laughed, surprised into it before he could stop himself. "No, although I kinda like that one. I mean I get the feeling there's a lot more to you than meets the eye."

Bait ducked his tail between his legs. "Mister?"

Sonic closed his eyes resignedly. "Yeah?"

"D'you need more food?"

The hedgehog blinked, thrown by this abrupt shift in conversation. "'Scuse me?"

"Food. 'Cause I were thinkin', mebbe next time you wanna tell one a them stories an' you're hungry or somethin', you could tell your buddy an' I could go get the food."

Sonic's lips quirked in a slight grin. "Is that your way of saying you didn't like my story?"

"No!" It was almost a yelp and Bait seemed to realise that this in itself was a dead giveaway; he looked down with flattened ears. "I mean...well...it was cool..."

"But?" Sonic prompted.

Bait took a deep breath, steeling himself. "But...I dunt like hearin' stuff like that, mister, 'cause it gives me bad dreams, so if you don't need me for nothin', mebbe I could get some stuff an' you could tell 'em...mebbe...?" He let the sentence trail off hopefully.

Sonic raised both eye ridges. "Or maybe I could just not tell ghost stories." He shook his head. "Hey, kiddo, I'm sorry. You shoulda said something."

Bait flattened his ears further. "Like what?"

Sonic shrugged. "I dunno. How about _shut up_? That's pretty clear."

The jackal stared at him. "You want me to say _what_? Mister, I can't do that!"

"Why not?" Sonic said lightly. "Knucklehead does it all the time."

Bait ducked his head. "Yeah, but that's him, innit? I can't tell _you_ to shut up 'cause I can't do _nothin_' that's gonna make you mad, an' 'sides, you're Sonic the hedgehog."

"That doesn't mean you have to tiptoe around me in case I throw a hissy fit. I'm a big guy, kiddo. I can take it."

"Yeah, an' then get ridda me for bein' rude." Bait shook his head. "Nuh uh. I ain't gonna do _nothin_' that's gonna upset you, mister, 'cause then you won't have no reason to get ridda me."

"Your always calling me _mister_ upsets me," Sonic said, not quite joking.

The jackal shifted his weight uneasily. "I'm on'y doin' it to be respectful."

"And that's a nice change compared to some of the kids I've met," Sonic answered lightly, "but if I ask you not to call me mister and you ignore me and keep on doing it anyway, is that respectful?"

"You're on'y sayin' that to catch me out."

Sonic shrugged. "You wanna believe that, kiddo, go right ahead. In the meantime, you should get some more sleep. It's been a long day."

Bait flattened his ears. "Can't sleep, mister. I'm wide awake, honest. 'Sides, it's too cold."

Sonic scrutinised the jackal thoughtfully for a few minutes. He himself wasn't cold – constantly racing through different Zones and climates meant that his body had adapted to take pretty much anything he could throw at it, not to mention the sub-zero temperatures he'd endured in Robotnik's fortress – but if Bait's shivering was anything to go by...the hedgehog shook his head, wondering why the hell he hadn't noticed this before.

"Don't you have a sleeping bag?"

Bait dropped his gaze, playing with his thumbs. "Nah. Couldn't really bring one neither, 'cause I had a tough enough time gettin' away as it was. I couldn't 'zactly bring a suitcase, know what I'm sayin'?"

"Yeah, I do." Sonic nodded to his own sleeping bag. "Use that one."

"But that's _yours_."

"Yeah, and I'm lending it to you." When Bait still looked unconvinced, Sonic grinned. "Go on; take it. It's not gonna bite."

Bait reached out, then drew his hand back. "What happens when _you_ wanna sleep, mister?"

"We'll talk about that when the time comes, and don't call me mister."

"Okay mister."

Sonic folded his arms and stared hard at the jackal. "Are you _trying_ to bug me?"

Bait flattened his ears. "Nuh uh! I...I jus' wanna go to sleep, mister, honest."

It was a lie and they both knew it, but Sonic let it go for the minute. "Okay kiddo. Take the sleeping bag and get some rest. I'll see you in the morning."

Relieved that Sonic had apparently bought into his story, Bait snatched up the sleeping bag and wriggled into it headfirst. A few minutes later, a small hand emerged long enough to pull in the corners, turning the bag into a snug coccoon.

Sonic grinned in spite of himself. He knew that trick; bury yourself in as small a space as possible and your own breath would keep you warm. It sounded incredible, but it worked like a charm. How on Mobius had Bait learned about it?

Oh well. He supposed it didn't really matter; at least the kid wasn't likely to develop hypothermia, which had been Sonic's main concern. But that still didn't answer the question of why Bait had decided to come with them in the first place.

Was he a spy? That had been something Knuckles had been hinting at (not very subtly, either), that Bait had been sent to lead them in completely the wrong direction. Except...no. No, the kid had sworn on the Chaos Emerald, hadn't he, and if he'd been lying it would have lit up.

Sonic sighed. He could already see another question and answer session coming up in the not too distant future. The problem was going to be convincing Knuckles to use the Chaos Emerald on Bait without letting on to either of them exactly what was going through his head. Knuckles was likely to see it as Sonic's acceptance of the Bait-The-Spy theory, and Bait would either be defensive or hurt by Sonic's lack of trust.

The hedgehog sighed again. Life was so much simpler when he hadn't had to worry about anything besides thwarting Robotnik's latest scheme...

**Phew! Okay, so that started out as Bait's First Chilli Dog and exploded into something more :P So what else is new? Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!**


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